Flaight Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 Have you seen it? Did you find it scary? If you didn't find it scary, I'd love to hear from you on why. I'm doing a small research on different perceptions of horror. I think I've pretty much gotten to the bottom of it now, but I could do with a bit more opinions. In particular, I find that there is a MASSIVE personal differences on how scary The Ring was. Cheers : peace:
Hero-of-Time Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 The Ring is possibly the worst film I have ever seen at the cinema. Me and 5 lads from work went to see it and ended up discussing the wallpaper they had used in screen 10 at the cinema. Scary? no, Stupid? Hell yes!
mario_jr Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 Yeah the Ring wasn't that good. I hear that Ringu is scary though, maybe its the special FX that made it a bad movie, that and the bad acting. Ringu didn't have many FX, if at all, so they left it to the imagination. Well at least I think thats why people like it so much.
Pit-Jr Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 i thought it was a creepy movie due to the fact that i watched it at night by myself. You cant fully appreciate a horror in a packed cinema with a bunch of friends. Psychotic pre-teen girls are scary!
Mike Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 I know that most people disagree with me on this one, but I really enjoyed The Ring - I actually found it really scary, and I loved the concept, even though I knew it was a remake. It's definitely scarier in a darkened cinema, though. Having watched The Ring, I rented Ringu, and was utterly disappointed. The plot seemed much more basic, scenes went on too long, and it just wasn't scary. Maybe if I'd seen the original first, I'd prefer it, but the fact that I'd aready seen The Ring meant that nothing in Ringu really interested me as I already knew what was going to happen. For example, I had no idea about the crawling out of the TV bit the first time I saw The Ring, and it really scared me. When it happened in Ringu, I just thought, 'meh'.
JetSetWilly Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 I agree with Mike. The American version of The Ring was excellent whereas I found the Japanese original too slow. I thought the American version made better use of the video and nice creepy touches like each time they watched the video the end shot of the well changed, and the subliminal rings that appeared in-between scenes and in the top right of the screen.
Waylander Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 I've seen the original version and thought it was pretty creepy. Havent seen the American version.
BGS Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 Saw the original first years ago and it is pretty creepy but the american does the whole story a hell of a lot better. I don't think the american gets it as creepy as the japanese version does, mainly because of so many special effects I think but the american one is the better film by far. Didn't find the american one scary at all though but that's maybe cause i'd seen the original first. The original was creepy throughout but only really scared me in that scene near the end. where she comes out of the tv that caught me totally unaware.
BlueStar Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 Whenever I hear "Ringu" I always think of The Ring crossed with Pingu. That would make an awesome film.
Fierce_LiNk Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 The Ring remake was a travesty, imo. They had a scene with horses jumping off the ferry. The credibility of the film was ruined with this one line: "i think you see The Ring before you die." No No No! Completely missed the point. Did i find it scary? Not really, to be honest. The original definitely scared me more. I think i found Ring2 scarier than the original, especially the bit when one of the characters is in the well with Yoichi and Sadako is climbing up the walls. Excellent.
Dan_Dare Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 The original creeped me the fuck out. it's not 'scary' as such (except the end) but it's deffinatly a very disturbing film. perhaps people here expect a less cerebal horror and missed the more subtle attraction of ringu.
Meik Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 Yeah, I watched the Japanese version of The Ring alone at night and it creeped me out. The remake, however, did not. AHHH
faz99 Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 Flaight, i think you should distinguish what you talking about. As far as im concerned, the American version of it was crap. And alot of people will just refer to it and how crap it was. When i watched the Japanese version, it scared the fucking crap out of me. I own them all on DVD now except Ring 0.
Athriller Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 I haven't seen the Western remake, but I found the Japanese original to be terribly underwhelming and over rated. The actual video images were creepy in their absurdity, and of course, the tv scene was abit shocing, but they were the only enjoyable moments for me.
Dante Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 I seen Ring,Ringu,Ringu and Ringu 0. I find the ringu 2 as the best one out of all the films. I did enjoy the films but I didnt find them scary just weird.
AshMat Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 Ive only seen the Ring (western) Enjoyed it, loved the story, but not scary.
Mike Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 The Ring remake was a travesty, imo. They had a scene with horses jumping off the ferry. The credibility of the film was ruined with this one line: "i think you see The Ring before you die." No No No! Completely missed the point. Firstly, what's wrong with the horses jumping off the ferry? I thought the addition of the horses in the remake was one of the many things that made it more interesting than Ringu. And the thing about seeing the ring before you die - so what if it wasn't in the original? If they hadn't added anything new to the remake, it would have been as simple and dull as the original, in my opinion. I don't think it was made clear enough in the original film why it was called Ringu, so I don't see anything wrong with having an actual ring in the remake. Now The Ring Two, well that's another matter - that was just plain awful.
Mokong Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 I know that most people disagree with me on this one, but I really enjoyed The Ring - I actually found it really scary, and I loved the concept, even though I knew it was a remake. It's definitely scarier in a darkened cinema, though. Having watched The Ring, I rented Ringu, and was utterly disappointed. The plot seemed much more basic, scenes went on too long, and it just wasn't scary. Maybe if I'd seen the original first, I'd prefer it, but the fact that I'd aready seen The Ring meant that nothing in Ringu really interested me as I already knew what was going to happen. For example, I had no idea about the crawling out of the TV bit the first time I saw The Ring, and it really scared me. When it happened in Ringu, I just thought, 'meh'. Didn't you tell me you were dating Gemma from Neo magazine? Does your opinion on this not bother her? (i'm just guessing being a writer for a mag on asian cinema she'd be pretty p'ed you'd pick american Ring over Japanese Ring. Anyway, i love the orginal, the direction and acting where far superior, the suspense and tension built up to unbarable levels (which is great for the horror genre), you see very little of Sadako in the film, where as in the remake you see too much of Sarah or whatever her name was that the mystery is gone, also the "video" was much better in the orginal than the remake. Ringu 2 and Ring 0:Birthday are also great to watch (though 0 is more of a drama but there are still some tense jumpy scary moments). I watched all three in a row once, till 2am, in an empty house...needless to say i was unable to walk upstairs to my room with the lights off that night. I think Ringu 2 has some of the best scary moments such as "the mirror scene" and "that part near the end when she shouldn't look back":shakehead
Mike Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 Didn't you tell me you were dating Gemma from Neo magazine? Does your opinion on this not bother her? (i'm just guessing being a writer for a mag on asian cinema she'd be pretty p'ed you'd pick american Ring over Japanese Ring. I think she agrees with me, to be honest. Just because she works for Neo, it doesn't mean she has to like all Japanese films. Neo's not just about films, anyway. Although I'm sure that if we'd seen the original first, we'd have liked it more than we did.
Letty Posted July 6, 2006 Posted July 6, 2006 I have seen the ring - not the japanese one. I was a bit disturbed with the random nosebleed that woman had whilst at the tv place, but thats all. The japanese one is apparently scarier though
Flaight Posted July 6, 2006 Author Posted July 6, 2006 Flaight, i think you should distinguish what you talking about. As far as im concerned, the American version of it was crap. And alot of people will just refer to it and how crap it was. When i watched the Japanese version, it scared the fucking crap out of me. I own them all on DVD now except Ring 0. faz99, I deliberately didn't distinguish the 2 here so that people may talk about both. Years ago for General studies I did a report on difference of perception, and I focussed on the subject of "sense of humour". As you know, different people find different things funny. As passtime, in the past a year or so I've been asking many people about their perception of horror, and it seems there is a parallel. Already in this thread, you can see the opinion is split. You are incorrect to assume that "alot of people will just refer to it[American version] and how crap it was". I wanted to hear from as many people as possible, and so I made this thread here. I say this as a generalization. The bottom line seems that some people are passive viewers, which means they don't get "into the character". Instead, they watch it as a floating camera. This type of viewers tend to prefer more realistic setup in a movie because they find it easier to get drawn into. Making a horror movie must be difficult, like comedy, because you can't really satisfy everybody. As for US/JPN versions, again, it seems to be a perceptive difference. US versions are usually crisper, more plausible and pacier, everything served nicely arranged on a single plate so you don't have to do work to enjoy it. JPN versions are usually more ambiguous, superstitious and leave a lot of dark corners (metaphorically speaking), as if to ponder about life. They tend to leave unanswered questions so that you'd have to use your imagination to fill in the gap. It seems to be a cultural difference. One prefers a clear and obvious display of beauty, while the other prefers an ambiguous and partially hidden display of beauty.
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